Packaging machines for packing round, rod-shaped objects, particularly cigarettes, are known in which the objects are fed into a chute through a funnel, the chute being sub-divided by partitions so that the material to be packed can be fed in individual units lying one on top of the other through a discharge opening. By means of a precise height-adjustable pushing ram batches always consisting of a constant number of units may be pushed out of the chutes, as a rule in the axial direction.
Further, a cigarette magazine is also known having at least one downwardly directed outlet sub-divided by partitions into chute compartments wherein the cigarettes are held ready in the outlet by virtue of their own dead weight, in individual rows lying tightly one on top of the other, for removal at the lower end. For packaging cigarettes in cigarette boxes or the like, a maximum height of fall of three cigarette diameters is required, whereby six chutes are provided for a package capacity of 18 cigarettes. The downward movement of the cigarettes under the influence of their own dead weight does not encounter any significant difficulties since the cigarettes have a symmetrically located center of gravity, and therefore possess stable falling properties and are additionally given a stable shape by the tobacco filler, i.e., they have a constant diameter and height.
While such packing of cigarettes from magazine subdivided by partitions into compartmented chutes is relatively simple, considerable difficulties arise when the known principle is to be used for packaging machines or filling devices for cigarette filter tubes without the tobacco filling. With a package content of 100 tubes, for example, seventeen chutes with six tubes each one above the other are required. Fillers must be inserted in two chutes. The fall height for a filing process is therefore six tube diameters. Because the paper tube is empty, the center of gravity of the cigarette filter tube is displaced toward the region of the filter, so that unless countermeasures are taken the tubes will fall with the filters pointed downward and will assume diagonal positions in the chutes. The instability of the empty paper tube means that no definite height can be established on the paper side of the packs, making it impossible to fix the height in the discharge opening, especially for retention of the seventh layer.